Man flaunts cash on Facebook, charged with unpaid child support

Posted by Thomas Pettinicchi of D'Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC on Mar 26, 2013 in Child Support

In past years, it was very difficult for one parent to track down another parent who owed child support. People could move to a different state, change to an unlisted phone number and become nearly impossible to find. However, with all the modes of communication and interaction that are at a person's disposal these days, new ways of locating a parent behind on child support payments and holding them accountable are more accessible than ever.

One of the most common ways of finding information about someone else is through the social networking site Facebook. People in Connecticut and all over the world post all kinds of personal information on Facebook, and all it takes sometimes is one incriminating status update or picture for a person to wind up facing criminal charges.

For example, one man recently found himself facing three felonies for failing to pay child support. After three years of not making any monthly child support payments for his daughter, a picture on Facebook piqued the interest of authorities. In the photograph, he was posing with large amounts of cash which put him under the microscope as to why he hadn't made any child support payments.

According to reports, Facebook profiles can be accessed by law enforcement if a complaint leads them to suspect probable cause, and if a district attorney then requests access to a profile directly from Facebook. If access to a profile is granted, it is then possible for authorities to investigate the lifestyle that a person may have been lying about.

In this case, the Facebook picture of the 23-year-old delinquent father led police to issue an arrest warrant, but the man never appeared in court. The most unfortunate part of this whole situation is that there is a young girl who does not have the physical, emotional or financial support of her biological father. Child support payments are intended to benefit a child, not to simply punish a parent.